We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.
When I first heard about the shootings in the theater in Aurora, Colorado, I was in my doctor’s waiting room. I don’t normally watch or listen to TV news, but in a waiting room you can’t avoid hearing it. Of course, when I realized the nature of the tragedy being reported I paid attention.
Several newspersons were interviewing one another, as they love to do, along with asking questions of an “expert”—some psychologist or psychiatrist who had written a book or something. They were all concerned about the perpetrator’s motivation.
One of the newscasters asked the “expert” if there were some people who were just evil by nature. He replied that he’d never encountered such a person, that all the people he’d ever interviewed who committed heinous crimes did so because of some event or series of events in their pasts.
I kept waiting for the expressions of grief and sorrow for the victims and the condemnation of the deed, but no such things came forth. All they could talk about was the experiences that had “made” this monster commit this atrocity.
By the way, “monster” and “atrocity” are my words, not theirs. They were too busy laying the groundwork for an insanity defense to keep Holmes from having to face the consequences of his actions.
How many would-be mass murderers watched this reporting—and learned that if they want to become famous and get their problems and complaints aired without any condemnation all they had to do was kill a dozen or so people? Why do we give a platform to monsters like this.
Guess what. Regardless of whether James Holmes was abused by his father or molested by a neighbor or whatever other long ago drama they can dredge up, the fact remains that his actions—and his alone—sent a dozen bodies to the morgue and another five dozen people to hospitals.
These people and their families are the ones who deserve our sympathy. These are the ones whom the newscasters should have been talking about. The next thing I want to hear about James Holmes is his conviction and execution.
As a Christian, I believe anyone who accepts Jesus as his Savior will be forgiven and will have eternal life in heaven. However, forgiveness doesn’t negate consequences of our actions. If I rob a bank, that won’t keep me from going to heaven, because Jesus already paid for my sins, and I accepted His offer of salvation. But I’ll still go to prison to serve my sentence for the robbery.
So it should be with this man. I truly hope he does find and accept Jesus before it’s too late, but he still needs to be tried, convicted and punished for this heinous crime without consideration as to what motivated him. The dead are still dead, and the injured were still injured.
What has happened to our society to cause us to focus more on what happened to little Johnny to make him the way he is than we do on his victims and their families? We need to get over all of our political correctness and mollycoddling of criminals and let people be held accountable for their actions.
Do you have friends or relatives whose lives have been touched by this type of tragedy?
Do you think empathy for the victims demands that we get beyond feeling sorry for the criminal and deal out some real justice?
Let me know. I love hearing from you?
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For more information about David N. Walker, click the “About” tag above. For more information about his book, click the “Heaven Sent” tag above.
Contact him at davwalktx@yahoo.com or tweet him at @davidnwalkertx
David N Walker 
I agree with you and Renee – we have a right to bear arms but no right to stockpile assault weapons. I live among cowboys, hunters, farmers, etc. I know why a farmer needs a gun. I know why we need to hunt. Trust me, if there wasn’t a deer hunting season I’d have 100’s of them in my front yard right now. What I don’t understand is why anyone should have the right to buy an assault weapon or tactical gear…and especially in such mass quantities. There should have been a system in place that prevented this wacko from stockpiling so much stuff. It’s obvious he wasn’t wanting a gun to shoot coyotes. Even the guy working at the sporting goods store could tell something was “off” about the kid.
Great post. 🙂
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Thanks, Annie. Love that someone who lives among farmers and cowboys agrees.
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Amen David! I couldn’t agree more and the media flat out ticks me off to the point I can’t watch it anymore because I spend too much time screaming at the tv. I was so angry at the media’s portrayal of Casey Anthony. They may have given her a not guilty verdict but she is absolutely guilty of negligence and terrible parenting. And her lawyers are making money off selling their stories. Watch, this lunatic will do the same thing – it doesn’t take criminals long to manipulate the media to serve themselves, after all it’s what they are good at. If that guy were in Texas, I doubt he would live longer than a week, justice system or not. My heart & prayers go out to all who are suffering from this tragedy. Good for you for raising your voice against this treatment.
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Thanks, Charity. What you’ve got is called righteous indignation.
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A sad as it is, with all the guns in this country, perhaps the miracle is that we don’t more of these type of tragedies.
Cheers
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Yes, and it’s Boeing’s fault the Twin Towers went down. And Alfred Nobel’s fault the Oklahoma City Federal Building was blown up. Oh, wait . . . maybe it’s depraved people who cause these things. Sorry to have to disagree, Nigel.
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David – I so agree the media attention should go to helping the victims (the ones that survived) and their families plus the families that lost loved ones carry on with their lives. We already know that Holmes has a ‘brain gone bad’ but that doesn’t let him off the hook for the crimes he’s committed. He’s responsible and I’ll be furious if the court goes for the insanity defense. After all – he was accepted to the Neuroscience Ph.D. program with a special emphasis in Psychiatry and he had a $50,000+ stipend from the government to live on. The stipend was so he wouldn’t have to work and could devote more time to his studies and research. But, he dropped out of school. Why hadn’t the school authorities let governmental authorities know that #1 Holmes was on academic probation and would probably be asked to leave at the end of the semester–so he dropped out before that happened and #2 How much of tax payers money did he spend while buying his arsenol.
The FBI and several other agencies have psychiatrist and other specialist in the arena of profiling and Holmes is a perfect subject. They can do there work behind closed doors — it does not have to be a media event.
I’m further concerned about why Hollywood has a need to continue to turn out movies that run counter to all that we hold to be good and true. I probably should get off my soap box here but there’s 2 things that bother be about this incident – on top of what I’ve already mentioned. #1 – The issue of the NRA being more powerful than the United States Congress and it seems we’ll never get automatic firing assult guns off the market and #2 Why are babies and children so young taken to movies such as this?
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Sheri, I don’t think you said a thing I’d disagree with.
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I have a feeling we are going to learn that there is one serious mental illness involved. We don’t pay enough attention to each other to notice these things, being so plugged into our own lives. Or we notice these quirks and we get scared. We say nothing. We do nothing. There had to be signs this was coming. This behavior is not so uncommon. In fact, it has happened since the beginning of time. There was always been murder; that is why G-d thought to prohibit it on the 10 Commandments!
What exacerbates the issue is, of course, the easy access to weapons. Not rifles or pistols, but semi-automatic and automatic weapons and the fact that this person purchased so much ammo over the Internet that disturbs me. I’m sick of gun owners invoking their rights. Shut up, already. This is the devastation we get as long as we allow guns to be legal. Guns serve NO other purpose but to kill. I’ve never understood Christians who love their guns. It is one of the great ironies to me. Do they not see the contradiction?
My heart goes out to the families whose loved ones were blown apart by this lunatic. And everyone needs to practice turning OFF the television and resist clicking on computer news sites about him. We need to watch more Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood because most people are good people who work hard to support their families, and that show provides the kind of responsible reporting that would make everyone breathe easier.
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Thanks, Renee. I can agree so far as assault weapons are concerned. These are NOT defensive weapons, except maybe in the military. But I do believe strongly in the right to possess rifles and handguns. These have a legitimate place for hunting and defending life and property.
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Yeah, you live in Texas.
So.
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And don’t you forget it!
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Yes I believe we should all stand up for justice, and my heart goes out to everyone hurt by this individual. Although I have no personal connection to the tragedy I came across this great blog which shared a very special miracle surrounding one of the victims: http://bstrait.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/a-miracle-inside-the-the-aurora-shooting-one-victims-story/ It was a little ray of hope in a dark place.
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Thanks for sharing, Raewyn.
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